Monday, January 17, 2005

737 Bad hair day

I saw a woman at Meijer's today with my hair style--the one I had in 1966! I was so shocked, I braked the grocery cart and stared. It was one of those beehive thingies with the French twist in the back. I didn't know there were hair stylists alive who still knew how to do that. I rarely keep a hair style longer than a year. The one I have right now (different than the photo which was 2003) is about a year old, and I'm really bored with it.

When I was growing up, after I gave up French braids, my mother always cut my hair--she also permed it. Whew! Did those things smell. Then when I was in 8th grade we went to Rockford and I got a professional hairstyle, a snazzy two piece, lime-green and white, sleeveless dress with a straight skirt (my first), and white linen high heels, and poof, I had grown up overnight. In my memory, I was always letting my hair "grow out." However, I remember a haircut before the Christmas dance when I was a junior in high school, a hair set the morning of my wedding day, and a haircut and set to have my senior photo in college taken. I'm sure there were more trips to the "beauty parlor" than that, but it must have been "growing out" most of the time, because my old photos show a lot of pony tails and shoulder length hair.

8th grade Chicago trip

My husband had beautiful red curly hair when we met. However, very short hair was popular for men, so I had to take his word for it that he had curls. He said it was so wild and unruly when he was a child, he'd be sent out of class to comb his hair. Living through our children's teen years took care of most of his hair, and then about 10 years ago it lost most of its color.

On the beach

This painting of us on a beach of Lake Erie 30 years ago is by Ned Moore, one of the best watercolorists in Ohio. My husband still had his red hair, and my hair, as usual, was growing out, in braids almost to my waist. It is one of my favorites.